China Is Ignoring UN Sanctions And Selling North Korea Key Components For New Missiles

Chinese firms are breaking a United Nations embargo by supplying
North Korea with key components for ballistic missiles including
launch vehicles, according to evidence provided by an
intelligence agency in the region.

Classified documents seen by The
Daily Telegraph show that Beijing has failed to act when
confronted with evidence that Chinese companies are breaking UN
Resolution 1874 and helping North
Korea to build long range missiles.

This measure, passed with China's support on June 12, 2009,
strengthens an arms embargo by urging all UN members to inspect
North Korean cargoes and destroy any items linked to the
country's missile or nuclear programmes.

But a study compiled by the intelligence agency of a country in
the region shows how North Korean companies are continuing to buy
banned materials in China. These entities "have been smuggling in
or out controlled items by either setting up and operating a
front company in China, or colluding with Chinese firms to forge
documents and resorting to other masking techniques," says the
report.

The companies include the Korea Mining Development Trading
Corporation, known as KOMID, which deals in weapons and military
equipment and has been singled out for UN sanctions.

Launch vehicles for long range missiles are among the items
illegally purchased inside China. North Korea is currently trying
to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that
would be able to reach the United States. The country has already
built a handful of nuclear bombs.

"The North Korean entities subject to UN sanctions are known to
have been deeply involved in the North Korean procurement of
Chinese ICBM transporter-erector-launcher vehicles," says the
report.

In August 2011, Changgwang Trading Corporation, a front company
for KOMID, bought four lorries in China that were then altered
into ICBM launchers and displayed in a parade in Pyongyang to
celebrate the centenary of the birth of North Korea's founder,
Kim Il-sung.

In addition, the Korea Ryonbong General Corporation purchased 2
tons of vanadium, which is used in the manufacture of missiles,
from a Chinese company in May 2011.

Much of the equipment was shipped to North Korea from the Chinese
port of Dalian.

"The UN North Korea Sanctions Committee has frequently asked
China for clarification of North Korea's weapons transport
through the port of Dalian, but China is said to have been
shifting the responsibility to shipping companies of other
nations or refusing to answer," says the report.

Sometimes, a bribe of between £40,000 – £60,000 is paid to a
customs official to send each 40ft container filled with illegal
missile components through Dalian, according to the report. North
Korea also conceals its shipments.

"To hide its trade, North Korea has been using all available
means, including falsely describing the contents of the
shipments, forging the country of origin as China and purchasing
the materials in the name of Chinese firms," adds the report.

Personnel from North Korean banks and trading companies regularly
meet at Beijing International Airport to deliver large sums of
money earned from weapons deals. This happens with the
"connivance of Chinese authorities and the customs office," says
the report.

China is North Korea's oldest and most committed ally, sending
millions of "volunteer" soldiers to fight for the North during
the war caused by its invasion of South Korea in 1950.

More recently, Beijing has propped up the bankrupt state with
fuel and food supplies, while providing diplomatic support in the
Security Council. China's aim is to guarantee the presence of a
friendly state on its north-eastern border instead of a united
Korean peninsula that might fall into America's orbit.